Shooter of two Minnesota lawmakers, families wrote ‘manifesto’ naming more officials

The home invader who shot two Minnesota lawmakers and their spouses early Saturday — killing a top Democrat and her husband — wrote a “manifesto” containing the names of other elected officials.

Police found the document identifying “many lawmakers and elected officials” in an SUV decked out to look like a law enforcement squad, after confronting the suspect in a shootout outside DFL House Speaker Melissa Hortman’s home, said Brooklyn Park Police Chief Mark Bruley on Saturday. Investigators have alerted those who appeared on the list and are providing security where necessary, he said.

Police are searching for “people of interest,” said Bruley, but have not arrested any suspects in the shocking attacks at the homes of the two Minnesota lawmakers, igniting a manhunt and shelter-in-place order in Brooklyn Park, and a frenzy of panic and rumors as large-scale political protests against the Trump administration were planned for Saturday.

The unidentified suspect, dressed as a police officer, shot Minnesota Sen. John Hoffman and his wife at their Champlin home each “multiple times” early Saturday, Gov. Tim Walz announced in a solemn press conference.

As officers proactively went to check on Hortman, the 55-year-old top Democrat House leader who lived in a neighboring suburb, they encountered a suspect, who escaped after a gunfight with the officers, according to law enforcement officials.

Hoffman and his wife are out of surgery and still alive; Hortman and her husband are dead, Walz said.

“When our officers confronted him he immediately fired at officers and retreated back into the home,” Bruley said of the encounter outside Hortman’s home.

Bruley described a convincing police disguise being worn by the suspect, designed to exploit to manipulate their into the homes, including a Taser, badge and black body armor and driving a vehicle outfitted with emergency lights.